1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for searching data consisting of binary data and meta-data. The invention also relates to a storage medium in which a control program implementing the above-described method is stored.
2. Description of the Related Art
Meta-data is “data concerning data”, and is also used for describing binary data, such as image data or audio data. By adding meta-data to binary data, image data and audio data is searchable by using keywords. The utility of meta-data has become popular due to the search feature. Accordingly, attempts have been made to use binary meta-data in various formats for conducting the search.
In a known database, however, if registered binary data to be searched is moved or deleted, such movement or deletion of data is not reflected in the database, thereby failing to obtain a correct search result.